Driving Through Time, A History of TAG Heuer and Motorsports

May 25, 2017

At Ben Bridge, we work with not only some of the most desirable watch brands on the planet, but we also offer timepieces from some of the most storied and intriguing watchmakers. An inside look at some of our favorites. TAG Heuer: Driving Through Time In 1975, the Ferrari factory racing team had a highly […]

At Ben Bridge, we work with not only some of the most desirable watch brands on the planet, but we also offer timepieces from some of the most storied and intriguing watchmakers. An inside look at some of our favorites.

TAG Heuer: Driving Through Time

In 1975, the Ferrari factory racing team had a highly successful season, winning the overall Formula 1 constructor’s title with six victories. Ferrari driver Niki Lauda, who called ’75 “the unbelievable season,” took home the honors as the top driver as well, thanks to his skill and the technical superiority of his 312T race car. To commemorate Ferrari’s success, team sponsor TAG Heuer created a special wristwatch, an angular black driver’s chronograph that they named for the race where Ferrari cinched the title: Monza. In 2016, TAG Heuer revealed an all-new Monza, the latest in a string of motorsports chronographs from TAG Heuer, a brand synonymous with auto racing since the 1960s.

In the fall of 1962, TAG Heuer decided to introduce an entirely new chronograph with modern aesthetics and a refreshingly clean dial devoid of extraneous markings. The founder’s grandson, then-CEO Jack Heuer, took the name for this new series from an especially grueling auto race known as the Carrera Panamericana. When it launched in 1963, the boldly different Carrera was an almost-immediate success and started a lineage of racing chronographs that continues today.

Watches, and auto-racing, have changed since the 1960s, and TAG Heuer has evolved as well. The brand is a primary sponsor of the new and exciting discipline of Formula , which pits high-powered electric cars against each out. And in a nod to the changing watch industry, TAG Heuer has taken the most ambitious approach to smartwatches of any Swiss brand, partnering with Google in the development of the TAG Heuer Connected. The new watch, which shares its angular sporty shape with the original Carrera of the 1960s, bristles with 21st century technology: a touchscreen, voice recognition and email, and phone and text notifications.

TAG Heuer’s slogan, “Swiss Avant-Garde Since 1860,” is a fitting one. The company has always been a little bit outside the norm — not just reinventing the entire sports watch genre decade after decade, with timepieces like the Carrera, the Monza and the new Connected. But through it all, TAG Heuer has always stayed true to its racing heart.